There’s seldom anything worse than being ostracized at work.  Whether you’ve been shunned by your colleagues, unappreciated by your boss or bunted from that key project you were working on, it’s a telltale sign that your face no longer fits and can lead to feelings of depression or unworthiness.

Indeed, a study from a couple of years ago found that people tend to regard ostracism as more damaging to their sense of worth than any other form of harassment.

There are many possible reasons why ostracism might occur, but a recent study highlights how important it is for managers to address this as soon as possible.

The social effect of ostracism

The study found that there are profound organizational implications of an employee being shunned by their peers.  It emerged that such exclusion unsurprisingly makes that person feel less connected to the organization, and therefore significantly reduces their willingness to contribute to its success, whether that’s through helping colleagues, adhering to the rules and culture or even offering ideas for improvement.

We’ve all seen the stories in recent times about the rock bottom employee engagement levels, and this study used similar metrics to measure so called organizational identification.  Strong scores here reflect the willingness of the employee to go the extra mile.

When you’re made to feel an outsider in your ‘group’ however, it’s perhaps not surprising that you’re not so keen to go that extra mile for it.  This was particularly damaging when there were high levels of employee mobility, as it typically resulted in that person jumping ship.

What’s more, these highly sought after individuals tend to have a greater sense of their self-worth, and therefore react more strongly to poor behavior at work.  When these people were ostracized, they exhibited a stronger response to those with less mobility.

So, it would seem that it pays to get involved when employees appear to be on the receiving end of poor treatment so that your workplace is a more positive environment.  Of course, it’s quite possible that it’s the manager that’s doing the ostracizing, in which case reversing the situation may be a lot harder.